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Psychoactive Drugs Are Misused Most In Young People by Pooja Shete on February 4, 2021 at 5:02 PM
An analysis of national survey responses suggests that nearly a third of US teens and young adults prescribed a psychoactive drug misuse that drug. The likelihood of misusing these drugs increases with age. The findings indicate that stimulants and tranquillizers were more likely to be misused than opioids.
The study is published in the online journal
Family Medicine & Community Health.
In the US, drug overdose is a leading cause of unintentional death and most of the cases involve opioid painkillers, but not all.
Data available on the misuse of other prescription psychoactive drugs are few and each year more than 1 in 3 teens and young adults in the US are prescribed one of these drugs. The researchers used the responses of 110,556 US 12-25 year olds who took part in the 2015-2018 National Survey of Drug Use and Health Sampling.
More than one-fifth of American youth reported misuse of their psychoactive prescription, a new study found.
In a survey of kids ages 12-17 prescribed opioids, stimulants, tranquilizers, or sedatives, 20.9% equating to about 1.3 million youth said they used their medication in a way that wasn t prescribed or directed for them within the previous year, reported Israel Agaku, PhD, of Harvard School of Dental Medicine in Boston, and colleagues.
Of these youth, 3.4% were further classified as having substance use disorder, defined as abuse or dependence on the psychoactive prescription medication within the past year, the researchers wrote online in
Among kids prescribed two or more psychoactive prescription medications at the same time, nearly half reported misusing said medication.
Study: One-third of U.S. teens, young adults misuse prescription drugs
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Almost 33% of teens misuse prescription psychoactive drugs they take for behavioral and mental health disorders, a new study has found. Photo by rawpixel/Pixabay
Feb. 2 (UPI) Almost one in three teens and young adults who take prescription stimulants or tranquilizers misuses the drugs for recreational purposes, according to a study published Tuesday by Family Medicine & Community Health.
This inappropriate use of these medications, known as psychoactive drugs and prescribed to address mental health or behavioral disorders, is even higher among older teens and young adults, the data showed.